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Having recently written two articles about the theory of applying Machine Learning in Education - “ Two ways to use Azure Machine Learning in education ” and “ Making machine learning in education easier for every day users ” - I think it’s time to dive into a specific example of machine learning in...

You can't read anything about technology trends these days without reading about Big Data and the power of algorithms. It pops up in education with lots of discussions of education analytics/learning analytics and a pile of other acronyms. I think that the discussion is so intense in education...

For six years, the Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit has been working on PhotoDNA technology – a way of detecting illegal online child sexual abuse photos. It is used by a wide range of social media and photo sharing companies, like Facebook, Twitter and Flipboard, to scan user-generated images as...

Last week, Wired ran a story on the research team working on next generation of digital pens and software experiences at Microsoft. It's a great read, because it raises some thoughtful questions about the way that we use computers, and the impact on learning and retention of information in our brains...

Less than 100 days ago, we revealed Hololens during the Windows 10 announcement, and since then we’ve all been waiting for a second chance to see it… Hololens in Education Well, last night, that finally happened at the \\Build\ conference as the team revealed what they have been working on, and especially...

A few months ago we announced the Office 365 Video service , which is an internal video publishing service on Office 365, and we recently confirmed that it is now rolling out to all of our Office 365 Enterprise customers (that automatically includes Office 365 Education services, with plan E1 and E3...

When the Office team launched Sway, the newest member of the Microsoft Office family, I wrote about how helpful it would be for teachers and students . The simplest way I can describe Sway is that it lets you publish visually attractive materials, including multimedia elements, that will look good on...

Each year we've worked with other partners to run a regional Microsoft NSW schools roadshow right around the state. And it's back again...the team road trip, just in time for winter!
Basically, we're running quality, free, relevant and hands-on education technology workshops, which don't happen often...

Here’s a question: If you’ve got a deadline just around the corner for creating a strategic school plan, what’s the best way to do it in a way that is still collaborative and inclusive – and hits the deadline? It’s a conversation we had with the Goal Huddle team about school planning templates for NSW...

In 2013 we announced that students can download Office 365 ProPlus free (that’s the suite of Office apps including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Publisher etc) onto their personal devices – Windows PCs, Macs, phones, tablets etc. We called this programme “ Student Advantage ”, and it applied to every...

When I wrote about “ How to help students to remember more ” towards the end of last year, I shared a video of my colleague Travis Smith talking about the power of pen-based input for students, over a simple keyboard interface, for key tasks such as note taking. (I recommend either the 15-minute or 60...

Teacher Dashboard is an app for Office 365 Education that lets you easily share files and assignments with your students, and then allows you to grade them and provide feedback. It’s a web-based classroom manager tool for Office 365 that customises your school’s system to support the teaching...

Hot off the press: Harvey Norman have just launched their Back to School student/teacher offer for the Surface Pro 3, with a 10% discount available to those who have an “.edu.au” email address. All the details are on their website here The offer is very simple to use – you supply your email address ending...

Last month, when I wrote that new Moodle integrations with Microsoft technology were on the way, I didn’t have an exact date, but forecast ‘late January’. And how time flies – because they’ve just arrived! Overnight, the work from our Microsoft Open Technologies team and the Remote Learner team (a Moodle...

Over on the Microsoft Australia blog , Pip Marlow, Microsoft Australia’s Managing Director, has written about our commitments to privacy of student data online:
Technology has the unique power to influence and transform how we teach and learn.
While the use of cloud...

With the end of the federal funding for computers, the move to BYOD in Australian schools has been rapid and decisive. With parents’ and students’ expectations raised by the DER programme, the gap in funding is now being filled by schools asking students to bring along the right device for their return...

I’ve been away for four weeks, enjoying a cold Christmas in Europe, and attending a very traditional English wedding set in a beautiful country house. But while I’ve been away I’ve kept up with my reading, and bookmarked an interesting set of articles and resources to share. So now that I’m back in Sydney...

The Microsoft Support team run the “ Microsoft Disability Answer Desk ” service, and have just announced that it’s now available for Australian customers, to allow you to get telephone support from Microsoft for accessibility questions. This service allows you to call a toll-free number and speak with...

Over the last couple of years I’ve written a number of times about integration points between Moodle and Microsoft, to help education customers understand what the opportunities are to be able to integrate two of their key tools for students and staff. This turns out to be important even for universities...

This morning we made an announcement that will be especially interesting to Australian education customers. The news is that we’re going to be running Dynamics CRM and Office 365 in Australia datacentres by March. This follows our launch two months ago of the two Microsoft Azure datacentre services ...

After writing about the $90 7” Windows tablet two days ago (called the Pendo Pad) being sold by Coles , I thought I should spend a little more time on the range of options available for students/schools this summer, because there’s such a range of different devices, and I really don’t think that there...

The team over at Paradyne are running an education briefing at our offices in Melbourne early in November, which will cover Office 365 Education and the ways that other schools are using it to support their teaching and learning goals. They are also going to feature Docusign to talk about one of my pet...

There’ still an opportunity to register to attend the Reimagine event in Sydney on 29 October, at the Royal Hall of Industries from 9AM-12:30PM The briefing isn’t just for education customers, and offers a learning opportunity from the experiences of transformation happening in other industries. The...

Like to talk about pedagogy and 'research driven education', but don’t want to read all those long academic research papers? Well, here's some really important academic research, but in TL;DR format: First, the reason that my colleagues and I often talk about pen input on Windows tablets: Students...

I learnt today that a school I used to work with in the UK, Broadclyst Community Primary School, were given a grant by the Microsoft global Education team to fund their Global Enterprise Challenge, to allow them to join 1,000 students from 20 countries together in a challenge for Year 6 students. And...